This phenomenon is very common in our contemporary society. In China, a lot of younger age students spend the majority of their time on completing homework or activities through digital devices. The outcome is that these kids become less engaged in physical and social activities with their peers or others. Therefore, a lot of them are not even capable of communicating with people and they cannot express their thoughts because of the lack of socialization.

I totally agree with this statement. I think the essential reason why we need ed tech is because it really promotes teaching and learning in many effective ways. As a student, the way how I learn information and knowledge might be different than others. I might need extra ed tech to support my learning and I have my own pace to complete my work. Therefore, I agree that ed tech is a good tool to personalize instruction to each student's pace.

I deeply agree with what it said. Every student is different and especially students might be at different learning levels. Teaching every student the same knowledge and giving them the same assignments might not be the most appropriate way for students to succeed. At this point, learning techniques and curriculums should be differentiated based on students' learning levels and situations. They need to be designed appropriately for every student to a large extent.

This is very true! When I was in middle school and high school, I used to play with my friends online. I think I have learned a lot of basic digital skills and I learned how to communicate with friends online. Also, I took some programming courses when I was in high school, at that time, I felt like technology will be an extremely important tool for future daily life and education. I think digital play should be implemented in education system at an appropriate time because it is helpful for students' learning and it broadens students' horizon when they look at the world.

I really like what she said that the use of technology can afford new teaching and learning experiences that are not possible without the technology. And I think this is part of the reason why I take this course. This is 21st century and technology is becoming an indispensable part in everyone's life. As a teacher, I really want to learn some educational technologies to promote my teaching in the classroom. I also want students to have more resources and methods to improve their learning experiences if they are capable of using some digital tools and apps.

I think this is extremely important when we think about what and how to design our education, especially in the higher education field. Equality and equity should always be an essential part for people to consider about. Education should be accessible and inclusive to every student, not only for a few students.

I have seen some software that are being used to detect plagiarism and I think they are pretty helpful. But it makes me wonder that will this tool be too stressful for students when they take tests because students are being detected all the time and there are a lot of rules for them to follow? Also, is this tool hundred percent safe if some students really want to cheat?

I think this is very true and important. When we talk about new digital tools, a lot of people do not understand the differences between the function of the new digital tools and the function of the traditional teaching tools. An effective digital tool should be regarded as more effective, enhanced, engaged, and functional compared to the traditional learning tools.

I didn't notice that these digital tools are helping students improve their social learning. I have learned a lot about Vygotsky's social learning theory and I was always thinking how to apply this theory to the real life. Now, I understand those tools and apps can allow students to collaborate with their peers in the real world and they can share their thoughts and get feedback from each other. This is a real application of social learning theory.

This is so interesting! Based on the traditional pedagogies, learning theories are pretty much embedded in the curriculums. But I did not know those learning theories can also be used for digital tools and apps. Cognitivism is one of the best learning theory that I have ever learned. I am really looking forward to exploring more digital tools and apps that demonstrate cognitivism as part of the learning process.

This makes me wonder that is it really a bad thing to give permissions to these tools and apps? I understand that they sell our information to other companies, but I think it is how online apps/tools work. To be honest, if I design an app or tool and I give it for free for customers to use and I do not collect their personal info and data. At this point, how do I make benefits? This makes me curious about it.

After reading this part, I was a little bit shocked, because I did not even notice that I have given my personal information to so many tools and apps. And this reminds me of our umass emails. I always get scam emails and I am really frustrated and I am wondering how did these scammers get my information? Is there any effective ways to kind of prevent the underlying costs of using free tools?

This is very important! I think this is not only for students who are ELLs, but also for students who speak English as their first language. Providing users with scaffolded explanations is an essential process to be professional and academic.

This is very true. Sometimes I really hope they have some links related to some difficult terms. In this case, I can just lick them and look them up. Also, I wish PDF can add some functions that we can take notes or annotate some ideas instead of just some highlighting.

I think these three elements are extremely important! If I am a teacher, I would definitely give students more choices. I want my students to be more comfortable with using what they prefer when they do their own projects and assignments. It will be very diverse if students use different methods to present their work in different ways. For me, I do not like to record myself to make a presentation, instead, I prefer to make embedded videos and sound in each slide. And I really appreciate that some professors give us multiple options to do our project.

This part is so important! A lot of teachers do not provide clear instructions about a tool before they introduce it to students. Therefore, students waste too much time on figuring out how to use the tool itself.

From my perspective, I think the user experience is very important. I am the kind of person who always gives feedback after I use any tools. Because I think if it is a good tool, then I should let more people explore this tool and more people will be benefited from using it. Instead, if the tool makes me feel overwhelmed and unsatisfied, I would not get positive feelings/feedback to this tool and I would not recommend it to others. I believe a good user's experience is an essential part of designing a learning tool. Because if your tool is more attractive, more people will be willing to try it out.

I think using a rubric is so important. Because once this rubric becomes professional and standardized, teachers will be able to decide to choose which e-learning tool/app fulfills the requirements of the rubric. In this case, teachers will be more likely to use the most appropriate tools for students teaching and learning.

As technologies develop, the tendency of teaching with technologies will become more and more popular and pervasive. I think in the future for courses about training teachers, there could be more courses about how to find, evaluate, and use e-learning tools for teachers. Because appropriately using those e-learning tools can promote the efficacy and experience of students' learning. Some great e-learning tools can help teachers better plan lessons and save time.

It is so important to double check the information of any websites or any online sources before you actually use it. Please make sure the information is reliable. I had a horrible experience about using a resume website, which is called "perfect resume". I just want to say this website is totally a scam. It said you can use the free-trial for 30 days. However, I did not see there was a tiny line which said it will automatically make you pay monthly. Therefore, after a a half year, I realized this website was making me pay for it every month and I tried to cancel it. But you know what? There was no option where you can cancel this freaking membership. Therefore, I found their phone number. I called them hundred times (pretty much about 3 weeks), finally, someone picked up the phone. I told that guy I want to cancel the membership and that guy still tried to stop me. I was so mad and I told him if he is still doing so I am going to report that website. Eventually I cancelled this scam membership. So everyone, please be careful when you try to use any sources. I really hope the SIFT model would work!